What Christ Did at the End of the Age

Therefore [referring back to verses 19-20 where the
book of the covenant and the people's bodies and the tabernacle and
the vessels were sprinkled with blood, in view of that God-ordained
practice, he says] it was necessary for the copies of the things in
the heavens to be cleansed with these [i.e., these sprinklings from
these animal sacrifices], but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy
place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it
that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the
holy place year by year with blood not his own. 26 Otherwise, He
would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the
world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been
manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself.

Star Wars and Hebrews

I want to make sure as we begin this message that you know the
difference between Star Wars and the book of Hebrews. For many
today there is no significant difference. That is, both are myths.
And a myth is a story (it need not be true in the sense that it
really happened), a story that provides symbols for interpreting
the world. You don't need Truth, with a capital T. You only need a
symbolic system to help you order your world. Now this may sound
like fancy academic talk that comes from a philosophy class or a
class in advanced linguistic anthropology. But it's not. It's
straight out of yesterday's newspaper about the new release of Star
Wars and the meaning it has for kids.

Here's a key sentence: "For some pre-adolescent boys, Star Wars
. . . functions as a kind of religion, giving them spiritual
nourishment and opening the door to questions of redemption,
forgiveness and morality, sometimes more potently than their formal
religious upbringing ever has. They're finding their myths in an
unexpected place" (StarTribune, 2/1/97, p. B5).

Now what interests me in this sentence is not that Star Wars is
a kind of religion for some kids. Nor even that for some it seems
more exciting than what they learned in Sunday School. (That can
easily be accounted for by the difference between computer-enhanced
cinematography and flannelgraph.)

Myth or Truth?

What interests me is the assumption of the writer that finding
your religion is like choosing among many myths. "They are finding
their myths in an unexpected place." And the question is not one of
ultimate Truth, but rather of what story or symbolic system works
for you. You can find your myth in the Biblical story of creation
by a sovereign God, incarnation of a real personal Son of God,
redemption by the real shed blood of Christ and by his
resurrection, and faith in this Truth. Or you can find your myth in
the story of Star Wars. The issue today, inside the philosophy
class and inside the movie theater, is not usually Truth, but
rather finding a satisfying myth, a story that helps you interpret
the world, to make it livable and, if possible, enjoyable.

So the article quotes one professor who compares not only Star
Wars, but TV in general, to religion and says, "It does what
religion does: provides a symbolic system through which you
interpret the world." That's all religion is for many people: "a
symbolic system" a cluster of metaphors and narratives and
experiences that touch you deeply and help you make some sense of
your life. Truth is simply a non-issue.

If that kind of thinking were confined to a few scholarly books
or a few advanced classes, I would not bring it in here. But since
I know it is simply in the air we breathe, I think you need to put
it before you and realize that as you read this text, and as I
preach this message, neither the writer of this book nor the
preacher of this sermon thinks that way. We are not offering you
another possible myth you can choose from to help your life go
better. The writer of this book and the preacher of this message
aim to describe real persons and historical events and divine
intentions that really happened in history. And we aim to reveal an
unseen heavenly realm above history that is more real than all we
see and touch in this life. This story is more real and more
exciting and more terrifying and more life-changing than Star Wars
will ever be, no matter how many enhancements they make. And I urge
you, in the name of God, to hear the strangeness of this text as
the strangeness of Reality, not as the strangeness of an unreal
truth.

For 1,400 years or so, God willed that the death of his Son,
Jesus Christ, be foreshadowed and anticipated in history among the
Jewish people through their animal sacrifices and their tabernacle
and temple worship. The writer says in verse 23 that these things—the tabernacle and vessels and relics—were all "copies" of an
even greater reality in heaven. As copies they could be
ceremonially cleansed by blood from the sacrifices of calves and
goats. That's the way God ordained it.

But then he says that these kinds of sacrifices are utterly
inadequate to deal with what ultimately matters: not the copies, but
the "heavenly things themselves" (verse 23). To deal with the
heavenly things themselves and to cleanse them, there will have to
be "better sacrifices." These "better sacrifices" are what Christ
offered once for all in his own death. And with this one great
offering, verse 24 says, Christ "did not enter a holy place made
with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us."

Why Does the Heavenly Holy Place Need Cleansing?

This is troubling at first and then tremendously comforting.
It's troubling because it raises the question why the heavenly holy
place would need to be cleansed You see verse 23 says that the
copies of heaven must be cleansed with the blood of animals, but
"the heavenly things themselves [have to be cleansed] with better
sacrifices." Why is that? Is heaven defiled? Is there sin in
heaven? Some have suggested that it's because Satan has been there.
Others have suggested that it's because there are "spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).

Maybe. But I think the most important thing to see is what verse
24 focuses on. Why did Christ enter [that heavenly] holy place with
his better sacrifice the sacrifice of himself? It was "now to
appear in the presence of God for us." The words "for us" give the
key to why there has to be cleansing in heaven. We are going to be
there.

Here is a great comfort and encouragement to us. It is not
complimentary. But it is wonderfully hope-giving. If you want to be
made much of, rather than having the mercy of God made much of, you
will not want to listen to this. But if you love the mercy of God
and admit the misery of your own condition, you will love this.
Verse 24 says that Christ enters the holy place of heaven with his
better sacrifice "to appear in the presence of God for us." This
means that he will cleanse us there. We are what needs cleansing.
And to the degree that we might defile heaven, Christ in that sense
cleanses heaven.

Now listen to this. He is speaking to those of you (all of us,
in our clear moments) who feel so dirty and so deeply bad that you
would only pollute heaven if you got there. O how many people are
kept away from Christ because of this! I pray that you will see
what an invitation this is. This is God's way of saying: "Come, you
dirty ones. Come, you defiled, you deeply evil ones. Come, you who
have soiled yourselves and who have been stained by others. Come to
my heaven! For my Son is there. And he has not died in vain. He
stands guard over my holy place, not to keep you out, but to make
you clean so that you can be with me in perfect holiness forever.
Come."

This is why he died. I did not send him to call the righteous to
repentance, but sinners (Luke 5:32). Come." Underline those words
at the end of verse 24 "for us." "Now to appear in the presence of
God for us."

How Can Sinners Be a Welcome in Heaven?

Then in verses 25-26 comes the description of how Christ
achieved this great welcome for defiled sinners in heaven. You see
it isn't to be taken for granted that there should be a welcome for
sinners in heaven. God is holy and pure and perfectly just and
righteous. He hates sin and lives in absolute perfection. Yet the
whole story of the Bible and of the book of Hebrews is how such a
great and holy God can and does welcome dirty people like you and
me into his presence. How can this be? Answering this question is
what history is all about.

Verse 25 says that Christ's sacrifice for sin was not like the
sacrifices of the Jewish high priests. They came into the holy
place yearly with animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the
people. But these verses say Christ did not enter heaven "that he
should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy
place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, He would have
needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world." If
Christ followed the pattern of the priests, then he would have to
die yearly.

And since the sins to be covered include the sins of Adam and
Eve, he would have had to begin his yearly dying at the foundation
of the world. But the writer treats this as unthinkable. Why is this
unthinkable? Because it would make the death of the Son of God look
weak and ineffective. If it has to
be repeated year after year for
centuries where would be the triumph? Where would be the glory?
Where would we see the infinite value of the sacrifice of the Son?
It would vanish in the shamefulness of a yearly suffering and
death. There was shame in the cross (Hebrews 12:2), but it was
triumphant shame. "He despised the shame and sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God." One shameful death and then
enthronement!

Christ's Sacrifice Shows His Glory

So the passage (verse 26) ends with a description of how Christ
really did it, how he really made a sacrifice great enough to
cleanse all the defiled sinners who hear the call to enter the
fellowship of God in heaven. And the writer mentions four aspects
of this sacrifice that show the glory of Christ. He says, "But now
once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

1. He says that Christ did this great work "ONCE" not repeatedly
but once and once only. And the point is that this sacrifice is so
great, that it need not be repeated not for all the redeemed in the
past from the foundation of the world nor for all the redeemed in
the future. It is enough. That's how great it is. Unlike Star Wars,
the death of Jesus will never do a rerun, because it is so great
that it cannot be improved on. There are no special effects
lacking. It's effect is so huge that it goes on year after year,
century after century doing what it was designed to do, save
sinners and present them faultless to God.

2. Verse 26 says that he was manifested "at the consummation [or
the end] of the ages." The death of Jesus is not just one event in
a line of similar historical events. When it happened, history came
to a climax. The first coming of the Messiah and the second coming
(that we will look at next week) are seen in the Bible as one great
closing act at the end of history. The time between the two comings
is seen as a kind of extension of the end a great mercy, gathering
people from all the nations before the end is completed in the
judgment of the second coming. So the glory of Christ is seen in
the fact that his coming and death is the decisive act to end
history. It is not just another merely human event. It is the
consummation of history.

3. Verse 26 says Christ sacrificed himself, not the blood of
another. This underlines the glory of Christ again. Not only was
his sacrifice once for all. Not only did it mark the consummation
of the ages. But it was a sacrifice of the most valuable person in
the universe the Christ, the Son of God. If you ever doubt that you
as a sinner could be made clean before God, ask yourself, "Which is
greater, the evil of my sinfulness and defilement, or the value and
virtue of the blood of the Son of God?" Then beware lest you
blaspheme.

4. Finally, verse 26 says that Christ gave himself once at the
consummation of the ages "to put away sin." The glory of Christ is
seen in this: that the problem of sin is dealt with as a whole. The
whole sin issue is taken care of. It is put away. Meditate on this
for your joy and for the liberty of your soul and for your
assurance in the face of death, and for your struggle over
particular bad habits. In one act—the sacrifice of himself,
the consummation of history—the Son of God put away sin. All
the sins of those who believe (Hebrews 4:2; 10:38), those who are
called (Hebrews 9:15), are "put away." They are canceled,
nullified, covered.

This is the gospel of the glory of Christ, the image of God (2
Corinthians 4:4). I pray that, no matter how dirty with sin you
are, you will see the light of this glory and believe. Come.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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